Sita was imprisoned in the Lingga

Sítá’s captivity in Lanka is the separation at the heart of the rescue narrative: taken while Ráma has been lured away, she is found far from him beneath the Ashoka trees. A ring sent by Ráma reaches her there, and she gives the visitor a token to carry back, making an exchange of objects the first sign that the separated couple can still communicate.

Abduction and Separation

Márícha’s magic draws the princely brothers away. In their absence, a vulture kills Sítá and carries her off as prey. When Ráma returns to their leafy dwelling, he searches for his wife and finds it empty; his senses fail, and he weeps in despair. The abrupt change—from a shared home to absence—makes the abduction both a physical separation and the immediate cause of Ráma’s grief.

Captivity Beneath the Ashoka Trees

Sítá is later found beneath the Ashoka boughs in the place where Rávaṇ holds royal sway. The brief account presents her as pensive and distressed, far from Ráma and without the security of their former dwelling. It establishes her presence in the captor’s domain but does not detail the conditions or duration of her confinement.

The Ring and the Returned Token

A visitor brings Sítá a ring from Ráma, identifying the absent husband through a personal object and showing that someone has reached her. Sítá gives the visitor a token from her own hand to take back. The exchange does not itself end her captivity, but it reverses the one-way violence of the abduction: Ráma’s ring reaches Sítá, and a pledge from Sítá can now travel back to him. Their separation thus becomes a search sustained by reciprocal signs of connection.